13: Dance of Bone
by Silent Elegy
Summary: The rotting dead have risen up to dance with the mindless living. Ghosts have overrun the streets, and those few left are forced to wonder: who can they turn to when even Danny Phantom is under the bone dragon's control?
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: Danny Phantom and all related characters are the product of Butch Hartman and Nickelodeon studios. Kat/Electra, Sandruu, Necrowind, the Ghost Master, and all related characters are the product Silent Elegy.

A/N: I need to give a cult classic named Medievil credit for the first line of my summary. Man, Sir Dan Fortesque was cool...

* * *

The Heart of Thanatos. Said to have been forged in the fires of Hephaestus out of the blood of the god for which it is named. According to legend, a mortal convinced the god of the forge to create this stone to trade Hades for the lives of his dead children. However, the power of the stone overtook him. 

No one knows what happened to him, but the Heart of Thanatos fell into the hands of four beggars. Not knowing what they held, they sold it for a high price to a prosperous merchant, who sold it for a higher price to rich lord. He kept it locked in his treasure room for three years until he was murdered by thieves in the night.

It dropped out of sight for almost ten years to resurface in Athens as a tribute to the temple of Aphrodite. It is said the woman who gave it had a daughter who was blessed with supreme beauty, and was subsequently responsible for a great battle at Troy.

A bandit attack some time later resulted in the stone falling into the hands of a powerful magician. He tried to use it to raise an army of the undead to conquer Greece, but his plan failed when the first creature he summoned was a ghost called Pariah Dark.

Pariah killed the magician and took the Heart of Thanatos back to the Ghost Zone. Although he had no understanding of its purpose of power, he was able to use it as a means to acquiring the Crown of Fire and the Ring of Rage. The Heart itself was hidden away until well after Pariah's defeat, when it was stolen by a newly-dead ghost child who took it back to the human world to give to his poor parents. They sold it to some Norwegian merchants.

The merchant ship was set upon by pirates. The pirates were killed in a storm. The Heart was lost for hundred of years. It took Vlad Plasmius a long time to track down the ghosts of those pirates and find out where they had been when the ship went down. But he was nothing if not patient, and his extensive research into the subject had finally produced results.

The Heart of Thanatos was, according to the few writings he had found, supposed to be able to call the Wind of the Necropolis, which would control all things dead and undead. Including ghosts. Including a certain half ghost.

That was the theory anyway.

In truth, his ancient Greek was a little rusty. He had no idea what was about to happen, and so had taken all the necessary precautions. There was a ghost shield set up around the lab; he was in ghost mode. The portal was closed, to deter unwanted guests.

He held the Heart in one hand, and a scrap of paper in the other. He had memorized the incantation and gone over it at least a dozen times a day for the past month, but he still wanted to have it on hand. It was in Greek, but he had taken it to a professional linguist to get some idea of what it said. It was a lot of self-effacing garbage that he didn't understand the purpose for, followed by the usual formal request that such-and-such make itself known. It cautioned the need for a magic circle; he didn't really believe in magic as such, but he had drawn one anyway.

He placed the black sphere in the center of the circle and stepped back to recite the ancient Greek. At first, nothing happened, and he was about to go have the professor fired for incompetence.

Suddenly, a wind sprang up that chilled him even in his ghost form. It knocked most of his lab apparatuses to the floor, but he decided to be irritated by that later as the Heart floated into the air and hovered about eye level with him. A deep gravelly voice spoke words he didn't understand, but he assumed it was the usual "Who has dared summon me?"

Although he wasn't expecting to actually be dealing with a sentient being, he adopted his most cocksure attitude and said, "I am Plasmius. I have called you here."

The voice seemed to consider this for a time, then replied in perfect English, "I am the Wind of the Necropolis, but you may call me Necrowind. I know how you lesser creatures like to make things easy. Why have you called me?"

Vlad recovered from his surprise without missing a beat. "I require your services. There is a certain ghost that I need to control."

"And you think you can command me?"

That stopped him for just a moment. "I summoned you. I am your master."

The voice roared with laughter and said something Greek. "I am the master here, little ghost."

Vlad wasn't stupid. He wasn't sure if he had done something wrong, or if he had missed something in the research, but he didn't think this was happening quite like it was supposed to. He stared as a massive, ghostly ribcage appeared around the Heart, then followed it upward to the long neck that stretched around behind him to the pair of yellow eyes that were almost even with his own. He gulped and, realizing that he was in deep trouble, tried to run to the console that would shut down ghost shield and let him escape.

Necrowind snagged his cape with its claw and lifted him somewhat for inspection. Try though he might, Vlad could not get away. Even intangible, the creature could hold onto him, and his struggling only produced low laughter. "There is something…odd about you, little ghost," the creature remarked quietly.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Vlad said quickly.

The creature threw him to the floor and impaled him with a single talon. He cried out, thinking this was the end of him, but there was no pain; he wasn't hurt in anyway. He pried his eyes open and glanced down slightly to see that he had transformed back into a human.

"You're human?" Necrowind muttered. He curled his talon upward, freeing Vlad but removing his ghost half. Human and ghost stared at each other in shock for a second, then Plasmius fired an ectoplasmic energy blast into the restraining claw. It did no damage, but he continued to struggle anyway. He didn't really want to lose his human half any more than Vlad wanted to lose him.

The creature chuckled at his prisoners antics, then faded from sight. Although the quite human Vlad could no longer see it, he felt its presence as a weight that made breathing difficult. Then even that was gone.

He lay where he was for a long time, feeling the loss of his other half. When he finally stood, it was to wander aimlessly upstairs and collapse into a chair. He knew he had to do something, but it didn't seem to matter anymore. Plasmius had taken most of their personality, leaving Vlad in state of apathetic ennui. Somehow, that didn't bother him quite as much as it should have.


	2. Chapter One

He dressed like he had just walked out of Pirates of the Caribbean: loose white shirt, "buccaneer"-style boots, gloves that would have better suited a falconer…he even wore an eye patch. Despite all that, she normally wouldn't have given him more than a passing stare, but he had decided to argue with her. "I'm quite capable of taking myself," he said haughtily. He had an odd accent, like an American who had spent way too much time in England.

"Look, I'm just doing my job, alright?" Valerie shot back. "Ghosts attack, I kick their butts; everyone goes home happy."

The strange man scoffed in a manner that reminded her eerily of the ghost kid. He waved a gloved hand dismissively. "Fine. Whatever. Just mind your own business, next time. You're not the only one around who knows how to handle paranormals." And with that, he turned smartly on one heel and stalked away.

What a wonderful start to the school day. If it wasn't ghosts, it was stupid, ungrateful jerks. And it had been such a nice week... Ever since those haunters from Louisiana had arrived, her ghost hunting duties had become surprisingly light. She had expected the attacks to become worse, but she hadn't seen a single ghost she knew in weeks, not that she was complaining.

Except for that ghost kid, of course. He wasn't around quite as often lately, but he was still around. She caught herself grinding her teeth at the thought of him. He was so arrogant and selfish and…

The sudden sound of a school bell jerked her attention back to the fact that she was late for first period. She quickly hit the ground at a run and banished her ghost-hunting suit. Charging across the empty halls, she wished she had simply left it on until she got to class. Still, it wouldn't do to take risks. If her father found out that she was hunting ghosts again, she'd be grounded until she was thirty.

She slipped into class; everyone fell silent as she made her way back to her seat. Somehow, it was even worse than when they laughed. She almost wished the teacher would reprimand her or something. But, of course, it was not to be. As the man continued with his lecture, she found her mind wandering back to the strange encounter.

Her ghost alarm had gone off, prompting her to duck out of sight and change into her ghost hunting gear. She had been hoping for the ghost kid; instead, she saw a weird spook attack that strange guy. Anyway, she thought it was an attack. She had begun to wonder if maybe they weren't socializing.

She had swooped down to do what she did best and kick some ghost butt, but the child-like spirit had simply fled. While that was satisfying, the man's reaction was not. He had promptly started ripping into her for interrupting something very important. What that might have been, she was doomed to never know since she had promptly started defending herself. Loudly.

Something about him bothered her. Even more than the fact that he reminded her of the ghost kid, there was…something…something about the way he kept his left fist clenched and the way the sleeve hung around his arm. It was almost like-

"Ms. Grey!"

Valerie jumped and stared guiltily at the teacher. "Yes, sir?"

"The bell rang. Class is over."

She glanced surreptitiously around at the snickering teens, then fought off a blush as she gathered her books together and started out the door. At least, he hadn't given her detention for not paying attention.

It was just something else to add to a growing list of strange happenings, she reflected on the way to her locker. It had started with the disappearance of the ghosts from Louisiana. Most people didn't even realize they were gone, but Valerie made it a point to know where they were at all times. Shortly after that, a few people claimed to see a huge skeletal dragon in the cemetery. While she hadn't seen anything, her ghost alarm had started to go insane there before burning out completely. She had finally convinced her father to fix it on the grounds that she could avoid ghosts better if she knew where they were. He didn't actually seem to buy it, but he did comply.

Then, over the weekend, Danny Fenton had gone missing. There was no note, ransom or otherwise, and no one had seen even a glimpse of him in days. His friends, Sam and Tucker, seemed to blame her for it, although they never said it aloud. She didn't understand that; she would never hurt Danny.

More disappearances had followed. People claimed to see the bodies of the recently deceased roaming around. The news had done a story on it after a few of the missing had been recovered. It had been terrifying to watch. It was almost like something had sucked the life out of them. Most of them simply stood or sat, their eyes blank and dead. Others had roamed around aimlessly, and two had tried to attack people.

Her thoughts were brought to an alarmed halt as her ghost alarm started to beep. She clapped a hand over it to quiet the sound, then carefully looked at it. It made no sense; the thing was out of control. It was doing the same thing it had done the day she went by the cemetery.

Suddenly, a girl screamed. Valerie dashed across the hall, expecting to see ghosts. She didn't expect to see Dash Baxter with those dead eyes, stumbling around like a zombie as he tried to catch Paulina. She yanked the girl to safety and kicked Dash hard in the stomach. He went down, moaning slightly, and didn't try to get back up.

"Are you okay?" she demanded.

Paulina sniffled slightly. "I think so."

"Sense and Sensibility, students!" Mr. Lancer announced, threading his way through the press of bodies. "What is going on here?"

"It was just horrible!" Paulina cried, going into drama-queen mode.

Valerie slipped away as explanations were given. She was worried about Dash, but she was more worried about the presence that had done that to him. Her ghost alarm was slowly going back to normal, but she still couldn't get anything that resembled a reading on the creature. Aggravated, she briefly wished for the ability to go intangible as she tried to chase after it. It would have helped tremendously to not have to go around walls and people.

The bell rang. Her fellow students slowly trickled off to class. "Dad's going to kill me..." she muttered. However, defending Amity Park from ghosts was more important than the grounding she would receive. As soon as she was alone again, she ducked outside to change into her gear and took off. She had a hunch that the spirit was on its way to the graveyard.

Sure enough, the closer she got, the more her ghost alarm acted up. She shut it off before it could destroy itself again and landed to creep closer. What she saw made her blood run cold.

It was skeletal dragon, all right. Where the heart would have been on a living creature hovered a sphere that glowed like a black light. Its eyes were bright yellow, and its mouth glowed a sickly shade of green. After a moment, it exhaled the gas-like stuff into the ground, then flapped its bony wings a bit as it settled down again.

As Valerie watched, horrified, the earth soaked up the green gas and began to shake slightly. Within minutes, hands reached up out of the graves, and the corpses clawed their way up to the surface. She wondered vaguely how they could escape so quickly.

Something growled, and she whirled around to see a very large alligator with glowing red eyes. It opened its maw as though to display its impressive set of teeth, then lunged forward. With a cry of alarm, the young ghost hunter threw herself out of the way and activated her jet sled.

"Think you to escape, little human?" rumbled a deep voice. She didn't need to look around to know it was the dragon. It laughed, a sound like someone's bass turned up to max. The noise echoed in her ears, rocking her very core. It occurred to her that she would much rather have dealt with the ghost kid, and then her sled snapped in half. She hit the ground hard but recovered quickly enough to see-

His eyes were red. They were supposed to be green, but they were red. She'd always known the ghost kid was evil, but he'd never looked that malicious. He was almost out of his mind. She turned to run, but the alligator was there. That ghost named Skulker blocked her on one side, while someone she'd never met blocked the other. All four ghosts bore the same eye color, and she knew for a fact that the alligator's were supposed to be black. There was something more than ghosts revealing their true colors going on here.

Well, her sled may have been destroyed, but she still had her weapons. She summoned her energy cubes and directed them to fire at Skulker as the one closest to the gate. "It'll take more that than to stop me!" she yelled at the dragon, running.

"We'll see, little one..." the thing almost purred. "We'll see."

It was with great surprise that she realized she wasn't being chased, not that she was about to stop. Eventually, however, she slowed to a walk and dismissed her gear. She could barely breathe for the stitch in her side, but she had to get home. What she planned on after that, she didn't know. She prayed her father would know what to do.

A shadow passed overhead. Alarmed, she looked up, but there was nothing there


	3. Chapter Two

Valerie slowly pushed the door open, trepidation written in her every movement. "Dad?" she called hesitantly, stepping inside. As grateful as she was that he hadn't started demanding to know why she was home so early, she couldn't help but wonder where he was. He was supposed to have had the day off. "Dad!" she called again. She could hear the television; maybe he'd fallen asleep on the couch.

Why was the house so cold? She checked the thermostat on her way to the living room and pronounced it broken. It clearly was not seventy-three degrees in the house. "Dad, I'm home!" she said to the top of his head from over the easy chair. "Are you awake?" Suddenly very worried, she added, "Are you okay?"

There was an oppressive feeling that weighed her down. It was almost as though something was sitting on her chest. She walked around in front of the chair to find Damon, eyes open and staring. They moved slightly in her direction as though out of instinct rather than interest.

"Dad?" she whispered. She reached out to touch his shoulder.

Suddenly, her wrist was caught in an iron grip. She yelped and jumped back, breaking free as he lunged to his feet with a wordless moan. Watching him shuffle around like the walking dead, her training temporarily failed her. She scooted away from him, babbling like an idiot for him to stop, to snap out of it. Behind him, so clear that she wondered how she had missed it, the dragon crouched; its body was partially phased through the walls and ceiling.

Valerie reclaimed her feet and stumbled away from her father. "What have you done to him?" she demanded.

That low, mega-bass laugh again. "I am the Wind of the Necropolis," he answered. "I am the god of death…and life. Your life will be mine, soon. But for now, you amuse me." The being vanished, although the heavy atmosphere took somewhat longer to dissipate.

She dodged out of the way as her father tried to catch her again, then fled the house. "Don't worry, Dad," she muttered, more for her own benefit than his. "I'll save you." She put her ghost hunting gear on one last time. For better or worse, she wasn't taking it off again until the dragon had been dealt with.

Outside, she was surprised and somewhat scared to see a dusting of bright green fog over the ground. All around her, people shuffled about aimlessly. "It's…life," she realized. That's what the fog was: life that had been drained from its vessels. The dragon was clearly responsible…

She heard a pained shout and turned quickly. The lifeless people had formed a mob around someone who, somehow, remained unaffected. She charged forward, shoving people out of the way, hitting them just hard enough to stun them. "Come on!" she yelled, somewhat amused to see the man who'd been so rude earlier.

"Love to!" he called back, backhanding one of his attackers out of the way. He kept his left hand very close to his body, Valerie noticed. It seemed rather stupid when he was being attacked on all sides, but maybe he'd been injured. After much pushing and shoving, they finally extracted themselves and ran to the relative safety of a nearby parking lot.

"Okay, you," Valerie began. "What's going on here? I know you know!"

He sneered slightly and held up his right hand in mock surrender. His left was still close to his side, and she had no idea why that bothered her so much. "First of all, my name An…Sandruu, not 'you'."

"What did you almost say?"

"Absolutely nothing. Second, I don't know much more than you about what's going on because _someone_ had to go and chase off my contact." He paused, but Valerie chose not to respond. She wasn't sure what she could say that wouldn't be admitting she was wrong. After a moment, he shrugged and went on. "All I know is that creature calls itself Necrowind, and it can drain the life from the living to reanimate the dead, turning everyone into zombies."

"I noticed that, thanks," the ghost hunter said dryly.

Sandruu looked down at her with an expression of amused irritation. "Well, I was brought here to help, but maybe I'll just go hang out in some bar until my ride comes back to pick me up."

Valerie looked him over, apparently unarmed, and scoffed. "You? Help? How?"

He flashed a knowing smile and adjusted his eye patch. "You should know better than anyone that appearances can be deceiving, Miss Grey."

Valerie grabbed a handful of shirt and yanked him down to eye level. She spared the barest second for satisfaction at the astonishment in his face, then snarled, "How do you know my name?"

She was rewarded with suddenly nervous half grin that reminded of Danny for some reason. "Uh…lucky guess?" She shook her head. "Okay, then. Vlad sent me?"

"You should have said that the first time. I might have bought it. And how do you know about him, anyway?"

Sandruu sighed and closed his eye. "Okay, fine. We'll do this the hard way. I'm going to grab your wrist. Either let go, or watch in amazement as I crush it."

Valerie was about to make some smart remark when he did, in fact, catch one of her wrists with his left hand. It was with dawning horror that she realized why he had not used to against the people who were attacking him; he was more than capable of making good on his threat. She let go, unable to repress a quiet grunt of pain as the blood rushed back into her hand. She hadn't even realized it had gone numb until it started complaining loudly. "What the heck are you?" she asked, backing away as she rubbed her sore wrist.

He gave an uncaring shrug and turned to go. "Thanks for your help," he called back over his shoulder. "I was worried I might hurt somebody."

And he was back to reminding her of the ghost kid. He was hiding something; that much was obvious. After a moment's thought, she narrowed her eyes and ran after him. "Hey! Wait up!"

He didn't stop walking, but he did turn to watch her catch up. "Something else?"

"You bet there's something else! I can't just let you walk around unarmed; there's ghosts around, you know."

He muttered something about his parents being idiots when they were young. "Yes, well. Like you, I'm never unarmed. But, hey! Who am I to refuse backup? Last time I tried to go it alone, I got shrapnel in places I didn't even know existed." He made a noise that was half exasperated sigh and half amused chuckle.

"You were in a war?" Valerie asked, her attitude mellowing ever so slightly.

She was once again treated to the nervous grin, so like Danny's. "A war?" he laughed, completely unenthused. "Me? Ha, yeah. Nah, I'm way to lazy to ever be in a war."

She crossed her arms suspiciously. "Then what was that about the shrapnel." She could almost hear the cogs turning in his head as he tried to figure out how to talk his way out of the hole.

"Uh…yes, well…um…wow, there aren't too many ghosts around, are there?"

Valerie rolled her eyes at the change of subject, but it did remind to turn her ghost alarm back on. "All right, fine," she announced. "You want to be mysterious, whatever. I've got more important things to worry about." And at the top of the list was the fact that the alarm had started beeping quietly. They were being followed.

"Where is it?" Sandruu whispered.

Valerie glanced at him out of the corner of her eyes. It bothered her that he seemed to know so much about her. Maybe Vlad really had sent him. "Behind us," she whispered back. "About ten feet; I think it's just following."

"Could be…uh, Phantom. I think it wa-is."

"Could be anybody," she pointed out. "Why do think it's the ghost kid?"

"Um…lucky guess?" He turned his head to look at her through his single eye, doubtlessly wishing that she were on his other side. "I'm just digging myself in deeper and deeper, aren't I?"

"Uh huh."

He laughed bitterly. "Oh, yes. It just had to be me, didn't it? Couldn't have been Lucy, oh no. She's the smart one. She's too smooth."

"Who's Lucy?" Valerie interrupted, curious in spite of herself.

"Lucy in the sky with diamonds," Sandruu explained with a wry grin. "She's my little sister. Loves the Beatles. Calls herself Kaleidoscope Phantom on occasion." He shook his head. "That girl could win a political debate with the President."

"Well, the President is kind of an idiot," she pointed out.

Sandruu opened his mouth to respond, seemed to think better of it, and said, "Of Japan…I meant…"

Valerie narrowed her eyes again. "Japan has a Prime Minister."

Then he looked like nothing more than a deer caught in someone's headlights. "Did I say Japan?" he asked, laughing. "I meant…uh…oh, forget it. I give up." He pulled off his left glove and tossed it to the ground, then reached up with a hand like silver bone to pull the off his eye patch. Valerie gasped, and stumbled away as he turned the eyeless socket in her general direction. She had just enough time to notice that it was surrounded by some kind of metal frame before he snapped a thin, red square into place over it. After a moment, the red began to glow.

She relaxed considerably as she realized that it was not bone, but metal that comprised his arm. It was a prosthetic of some kind. She hadn't realized medical science was capable of something like that, or his eye, yet. "Geeze, what happened to you?" she asked.

He smiled, and she noticed for the first time that the entire left side of his face didn't work properly. He wasn't trying to seem snide; he couldn't help it. "I told you. Shrapnel." He kicked off his boots to let her see that his feet were the same type of prosthetic as his arm. "Amputated both of my legs, my left arm, eye was deflated as you can see. Some pretty heavy internal damage that I won't go into to." He sighed sadly and started walking again, leaving his boots behind. "Best five months of my life…"

She couldn't have heard that right… "The best?"

He nodded his head. "Yeah. I still had one eye and one hand, so I could feed myself and play video games, and everyone waited on me hand and…well, hand." He chuckled at the girl's expression. "Anyway, then a family friend convinced her father to make these for me, and I had to go back to Greenland for another three years, where my other lung got deflated by a bullet…" He trailed off as he realized that, once again, he had opened his mouth and said something he shouldn't have.

"Greenland?"

"Can we just…oh, I don't know…stop talking before I say something that gets us all in trouble?"

Valerie acquiesced, but she continued to keep an eye one him. There was something very, very wrong with him.

* * *

A/N: Oh, I forgot to mention to all of you that are wondering. The prologue? I made that up. And now I need to talk about Sandruu because, like Ebony Angel, he's been in my head for years, and I love him. Ahem. 

Sandruu is a necromancer, although not in the context of this story. The original fic had it as he was the one who summoned Necrowind for much the same reason Vlad did, and with much the same result. However, Necrowind is the one that damaged the left side of his body, not shrapnel. Anyway, he went on a journey to seal the dragon away again because the Grim Reaper showed up and blackmailed him with eternity. I later scrapped the piece because he was such a bloody Sue (or Stu, if you prefer). I'm hoping his characterization is better here, and, I'll admit, this fic serves a dual purpose. I would like to eventually finish the original piece, and I'm hoping this will help jump start my brain.


	4. Chapter Three

The two travelers fended off a legion of the mindless living as they ran down the street. The displaced life energy that dusted the ground had gone from a brilliant emerald to a plain light green. What that meant, Valerie didn't know, but it couldn't be good. It was during a lull in their escape that she was startled to realize something. The energy had started out the same color as the ghost kid's eyes. It was now the pale, almost sickly shade of other ghosts' eyes.

She pushed that aside to think about later as Sandruu crushed the head of a rotting corpse in his mechanical hand. "Okay, that was sick!" she informed him.

"Live and let die, I always say," he punned…poorly.

"You sure your sister's the one that likes the Beatles?"

"Paul McCartney," he corrected. "What can I say? We're both suckers for classic rock." He hit another zombie while Valerie fended off a human. "Don't you have a jet sled?"

"Stupid ghost kid broke it," she growled. "Maybe we can lose them if we get inside somewhere."

Suddenly, she was sailing through the air at a controlled pace before her stomach hit a hard shoulder. Looking at the world from a sack of potatoes' point of view was a decidedly unnerving experience. "What're you doing, now?" she demanded.

"Just don't struggle," was his only response. Then they were running through the mass of undead, leaving broken bodies in their wake. Before long, she saw a pair of glass doors swing shut and was dumped unceremoniously on a marble floor. Sandruu dashed back across to wedge something in the doors to keep them shut. After a moment's wait, Valerie realized it was his arm. "Can you go find something that'll work better?" he pleaded.

She couldn't help but smirk at his expression, but nodded and dashed off. She had just found a broom closet and settled on some kind of metal pole when she heard a pronounced crash. "Never mind!" Sandruu yelled.

"How'd they get through?" Valerie demanded, leading the way to the fire exit.

"They broke the glass."

"That's not what I meant," the girl protested uselessly. She hit the door and charged through, the cyborg hot on her heels. "Man," she huffed. "I never knew zombies could run that fast."

Sandruu wedged the door closed with part of a broken fire escape. "Yeah, a lot of people think they're slow because their muscles are rotting away. What they don't realize is that zombies don't rely on muscle power to move."

Valerie scoffed as they threaded their way around scattered trash. "What is it then? Magic?"

He lifted his eyebrow. "It's the same thing ghosts run on," he answered as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. "Ectoplasm."

They fell silent. The young ghost hunter was on the verge of asking her companion how he knew so much. She hoped that if she could make him nervous enough, he might let something important slip. He didn't seem to be very good at keeping his mouth shut. However, a sudden noise drove the thought from her mind as it dragged her attention to the pathetic-looking form that sat against the wall.

"Danny!" she exclaimed, rushing forward. He made a weak attempt to grab for her throat and fell forward slightly. "What's wrong?" she demanded. "What's wrong with him?"

"He's been out here too long," Sandruu muttered, carefully lifting the boy over one shoulder. "I'm not sure what drives them, but it isn't exactly hunger. He's starving to death."

"We've got to get him to the hospital!" Assuming it's still there, she amended quietly. The man nodded and motioned her to lead the way. Before she made it two steps, however, green energy blasted her to the ground.

"No one's going anywhere!" Phantom exclaimed, dropping into the alley with them.

Valerie jumped to her feet and summoned her energy cubes. "I'll hold him off!" she yelled. "Get Danny out of here!" She fired at the ghost, distracting him enough that Sandruu was able to get away. He returned fire and tried to give chase, but the hunter tackled him to the ground.

She did not expect the fight she got from him. He had never seemed that strong before, except for that one time when her suit had malfunctioned and tried to kill Danny. Was it even the slightest bit possible that he had been serious all those times he said he didn't want to hurt her? She fought her way out from under him, saw a flash of copper metal sail overhead, and stumbled to her feet to see Electra, the ghost of the Hot Pink Lizard, wrestling with Phantom for control of her sparking cane.

"Go!" she called, nodding over her shoulder. "And tell your friend to tell Clockwork I'm going to kill him!"

Valerie hesitated a moment more before she started running. They had fought a few times, although Electra had only won once. She always gave the same knowing smirk whenever she lost, too. But if she was fighting Phantom, she couldn't have been under Necrowind's control. At least, it gave Valerie a chance to get back to Sandruu and, more importantly, Danny.

She found them a block away camped out on a shop awning. "I thought I said get him to a hospital!"

He lowered the two of them down and turned to face her. "It's not where I remember it. It burned down, and I-" He broke off and looked away, gesturing impatiently for her to precede him.

Valerie shook her head as she complied. "When this is all over, I'm going to be expecting some explanations."

"When this is over, I'm going home," Sandruu shot back.

"Then I better get my answers now, huh?" She fell back slightly to walk next to him. Danny's eyes were closed; he almost seemed peaceful. "Is he going to be okay?"

"I bloody well hope so..." He sighed heavily and rubbed the area above his heart. "I mean, I'm sure he will be, but...I don't know if this is going right or not. Nobody ever told me anything..."

The ghost hunter pursed her lips and glared. She had a thought; she'd been disregarding it because it wasn't possible, but she suddenly felt compelled to voice it. "You're from the future." After a moment, Sandruu nodded slowly. "But how? Time travel's not possible!"

He pointedly regarded his mechanical arm for a moment. "Do you believe that I'm from the future?"

"I...I don't know." She stared up at his faintly glowing eyepiece and huffed. "I guess I have to, don't I?"

"I guess you do. Look, yes. I'm from the future. I rather like existing, so please don't ask me questions about it."

"Kaleidoscope Phantom..." Valerie muttered. "You're that ghost boy's kid!"

He sucked in his breath angrily and waited a few seconds until he could calmly respond. "Do I look like a ghost to you?"

She relaxed slightly, although she was no less suspicious. "No, I guess not. But then, who are you?"

"Again. My existence is at risk here. Anyway, does it really matter? I'm here; I'm trying to help."

It was not lost on her that the man had never actually denied being Phantom's son, but she hoped that was simply because he was trying to be clever. He didn't look like a ghost; in fact, if not for the machinery grafted onto his body, he would have been completely unremarkable. He didn't set off her ghost alarm, either, although he wouldn't have been the first. She had spent several months under the mistaken impression that Danny's friend Kat was perfectly human.

She was grateful for the distraction finally provided by Amity Park Medical. Her thoughts had grown increasingly uncomfortable. "Looks like it's still standing," she remarked, just to break the silence.

Sandruu nodded. "I thought it might be. It didn't burn until-" He broke off with an annoyed sigh. "I'm…not talking again until I leave. That's just all there is to it."

Valerie snickered. She didn't honestly think he'd be able to keep that vow, but it would be fun to watch him try. Then she saw the people milling around inside the doors and grew serious again. "It's already been here," she whispered.

"That's not right…" the cyborg muttered. "He avoided the hospital…something about the energy being wrong there. He must not know yet."

"He attacked your time, too?"

Sandruu closed his eye and sighed. "It's why I was sent back. I don't know what Clockwork's up to, why he didn't just take the sphere before Necrowind could be summoned again. But he says he couldn't, and I had to come back here for something. I don't know what; I don't know why."

"So what do you know?"

"That we'll have to bring D…Danny with us." He started walking, trusting the girl to follow. "If there's anything you need to know, I'll tell you. But I hope you'll excuse me for not wanting to commit suicide by information."

Valerie glanced back at the hospital one last time before catching up. "I'll hold you to that. So is he supposed to be at the cemetery, still, or what?"

"Only one way to find out, I'm afraid."

The ghost hunter glanced down at her ghost alarm, which had started beeping again. At least, he'd said one thing that made her relax a bit, although he didn't realize it. If he'd been sent back in time to stop Necrowind from being summoned again later, clearly they would succeed in beating him. She just hoped the cost wasn't too high.


	5. Chapter Four

Pre-Note: Sandruu says a bad word. Just a heads up.

* * *

There was still a ghost hovering about ten feet behind them; Sandruu had expressed the opinion that it was probably Phantom again. Danny had become slightly more animated, forcing the cyborg to hold him with his metal arm. He seemed relieved to have an excuse to get the weight off of his flesh one.

Valerie watched with sad eyes as her only real friend struggled weakly against the machinery that held him. Oddly enough, she couldn't help but notice, he was no longer trying to hurt them like the other mindless people. He seemed more interested in reaching something that was behind them. She couldn't imagine what that might be, unless it was the ghost kid.

But that was just silly.

"So who's this Clockwork guy?" she asked, more to take her mind off of Danny than because she was interested.

Sandruu shrugged. "A friend of the family...who can control time..." He angled his head to regard her with his human eye.

"So what? He's a ghost?"

There was a somewhat prolonged pause, during which Valerie had the odd thought that he was trying to control his temper. At last, he said carefully, "Not all ghosts are evil."

"You sound like that ghost kid," the hunter replied, giving him a suspicious stare.

"And so what if I do?" he yelled, breaking at last. Valerie stumbled away in alarm, certain that the boy clutched protectively in his arm was the only thing that kept him from bashing in her skull. He closed his eyes and clenched his teeth, visibly attempting to calm himself. At last, although his voice still shook with anger, he said, "Don't talk to me about Danny Phantom. It is a very sore subject for me." As he stalked away, she thought she heard him add, "Especially from you."

So she finally succeeded in destroying him? That gave her some hope for the future, at least. She glanced back at Danny with a worried frown. He had finally relaxed again, but only because he had passed out. At least, she thought he was unconscious. His eyes were closed, anyway.

She hated Phantom. She was relatively certain this was his fault in some way, and she hated him for it. She hated him for what he had done to her, to her father, and, in a more roundabout way, to Danny.

After a few moments, she shook her head and muttered, "What's your deal with him anyway? He's just a stupid ghost."

Her next clear memory was of staring up at him and seeing his human eye turn bright green. Danny had been transferred to his flesh arm, so he had clearly still been thinking when he hit her. Her head pounded and her ears rang; if not for her helmet, she might have acquired a broken jaw. "So you are his kid," she said, standing slowly.

"And if I am?" the angry cyborg demanded. "Do you have any idea what it's like to be forced to help your father's murderer? Not only that, but to hear to the insults, the hatred, and be forced to ignore it?" He advanced on the ghost hunter, who readied herself for a fight.

"Because of you," Sandruu snarled. "My father is now a mindless murder victim. He doesn't even recognize us anymore; all he cares about is revenge. And right now, I'm half tempted to get it for him, consequences be damned!" He cried out suddenly and whirled around.

Electra regarded the knob of her cane as though to check for damages from the contact with his head. Her voice was carefully casual when she remarked, "Touch her again, and let me assure you; not even Clockwork will be able to save you."

"Stay out of this, Kat."

"And who are _you_ to address _me_ in the familiar, sir?" she demanded.

"Enough!" Valerie yelled. "Both of you! I don't care if you fight, but give Danny to me, first!

Sandruu drew back protectively, and his eye returned to its normal blue. He shot a glance toward the irate gremlin, perhaps startled to realize that she wasn't from his time, and resumed walking.

"What do you care about me?" the girl asked, turning back.

Electra smirked, her eyes sparking. "About you? Not a bloody thing." Then she was gone in a puff of blue smoke. Valerie shook her head in disgust and ran after Sandruu to enjoy an extremely prolonged and uncomfortable silence.

After what seemed like an eternity, she shuddered and asked, "Where is everyone?"

She didn't think her companion was going to respond until he sighed. "They'll be gathering wherever Necrowind is. Look, Phantom is a good man. You never saw that, though, and you killed him."

Valerie scoffed. "Yeah? Well, he's tried to kill me more than once."

"He always held back when he fought you!" Sandruu paused to get his temper under control again before continuing. "Always. I watched him. I know. But when you found out he was...doesn't matter...never mind. You don't care; you never did."

The ghost hunter stared, a dozen different thoughts running through her head. Foremost, she wanted to know what he almost said. She also would have liked to ask how he could possibly be human if his father was a ghost. Since she knew neither of those questions would get a response, she glanced down and pretended to fiddle with her ghost alarm.

"Hey!" she exclaimed quietly. "There's two more behind us, and they're getting closer."

Sandruu said something that did not bear repeating and looked back. "We've stopped being amusing, I think," he said dryly. "The other two look like Skulker and...it's either Ember or Desiree. I can never tell the difference." He smiled slightly at her questioning glance and tapped his eyepiece. "Ghost vision."

Valerie nodded, grateful that he seemed to be back in a relatively normal mood. She had not yet had occasion to find out if her helmet had working ghost vision. Since the trio behind them took that moment to become visible, she would have to wait a while longer. "Desiree," she needlessly clarified. "Don't make any wishes." She glanced over at the grinning cyborg and rolled her eyes. "All right, tough guy. You any good at fighting ghosts?"

"I can hold my own," he confirmed. "Hey, Kat! I know you're still around! Can you at least watch Da-Danny?"

"Yeah, I'll take him somewhere safe," she replied, fading into view with a worried glance at the approaching ghosts.

"How do we know we can trust you?" Valerie interrupted.

"Do you have another choice?" She took the unconscious boy and sighed sadly. "There's more on the way; you'd be wise to run. Don't hurt Phantom too bad?" She vanished, this time without fanfare, before getting a response.

The ghost alarm was already picking up new arrivals as they came into view. However, the two partners were no given no chance to discuss the situation or possible plans. As though Danny's disappearance was some kind of signal, Phantom grinned maliciously and threw his arm forward with a cry of, "Get them!"

Suddenly, the ghosts were crawling out of the woodwork, both metaphorically and literally. Valerie had just enough time to see Sandruu get tackled by the alligator, and then she was dodging blasts from a familiar Dracula look-alike. "You!" she yelled to the Wisconsin Ghost. "How the heck did you get here?"

Plasmius smirked and shrugged. "I go where the Master bids me."

Trapped between Plasmius and Phantom, the young ghost hunter found herself wishing that Electra had stuck around. At least, the ghost would have been another ally, and one that specialized in wide-ranged attacks.

She ducked to the left as Phantom fired, vaguely hoping that the attack would hit her other enemy. Sadly, it merely hit that attack, and both were cancelled out. She fired back, and then it was time to dodge boxes and various lunch meats while still managing to avoid the green and red Ghost Rays. The Box Ghost finally went down, but Valerie left herself open to electrocution courtesy of Technus' Electromag Rod.

"Sandruu!" she called from the middle of an attack on Skulker. "We gotta go!"

"Love to!" was the reply. "But there's a giant lizard attached to my arm!"

Valerie ducked under someone's attack; she was beyond caring exactly who, at that point. "Well, shake him off and let's go!" She caught a glimpse of him, the Ghost Master's jaws clenched around his mechanical arm, trying to fend off Desiree and Ember with only one hand. It didn't seem to be going well. She fought her way across and blasted the alligator, then grabbed Sandruu and pulled him along. "Don't you have, like, intangibility or something?"

"Dad's the ghost; not me," he informed her as he backhanded something above her head.

They finally got out of the middle of the melee and simply ran. The girl noticed her companion's eye blaze green as he turned to look back; the other one seemed to have shut down. He slowed down and motioned her to do the same. "They're not following," he said, confused.

His mechanical arm was twitching, and he seemed to be limping. "Are you okay?" Valerie asked, concerned in spite of herself.

He grimaced and shook his head. "I don't know. I feel like my circuits are over...loading...oh, no..." Suddenly, his red eye flickered back to life, and he froze. It took a few minutes of impatient demanding before he continued. "You remember I said my body took some pretty heavy internal damage?"

"Yeah?"

"And you remember I mentioned both of my lungs had been deflated?" She agreed again; although he had really only implied it, she did get the message. "Well, what I'm trying to say is...my body is mostly machinery, now."

"Okay?" Valerie was beginning to grow somewhat edgy. It was as though he was trying to dance around a certain subject, which made her very irritated. However, he also seemed to be fighting something, which might have accounted for it.

He nodded slightly as his fist slowly clenched of its own volition. "Right, so, what I'm trying to say is...I think Technus just possessed my machine half."

* * *

A/N: Now, I need your help. Is this fic boring to anyone? I like it, but I want everyone to like it, too. Only your honest opinions, please. Be as blunt as you like, and don't worry about hurting my feelings. I wouldn't be posting here if I couldn't take a little constructive criticism now and again. Besides, my ego could use a little deflating.


	6. Chapter Five

Valerie watched her companion shake slightly with the effort of fighting off an invading force. "Can't you fight him?" she asked, backing away. She could hear the gears in his legs protest the movement as he took a step forward.

"I can't even move my head," he said from between clenched teeth. "Technus has partial control of my brain because of all the implants. I can't…" He gasped as he finally lost control and lunged forward, barely missing the target. Fortunately, Technus seemed to realize that his host had no range weapons and began to circle warily, looking for an opening.

The ghost hunter started to fire at him, but found that she couldn't. She thought that she shouldn't care about him since he was the son of her mortal enemy but…he really wasn't that bad. Or maybe she was just getting soft. Either way, she gave a disgruntled huff and asked, "What can I do?"

Sandruu opened his eye; his expression was one of pleading. "Most of my implants are on my right side, protected by a metal plate. If you can hit me hard enough, you should be able to shut them down."

Apparently, the invading ghost had been listening. He lashed out with one leg, machine-strength easily overcoming any balance issues cause by the human's lack of cooperation. Valerie rolled beneath the attack and jumped to her feet just in time to slam into his outstretched arm. She staggered away, holding her head.

"Wanna give me a hand here maybe?"

The ghost paused and the cyborg blinked. "Um…look out?"

"Gee, thanks." Somehow, she had the impression that she was being laughed at by both of them. She flipped backwards to avoid another kick and aimed a punch just below his ribs. That time, she knew she was being laughed at, but the pain in her knuckles kept her from an immediate retort.

"Okay, what part of massive internal damage are you not getting?" Sandruu demanded, worry and desperation making him sound angrier than he actually was. "Find something to hit me with!" Then his brain caught up to his mouth, and he grinned nervously.

Valerie returned with a dry glare and decided not to respond. Instead, she jumped back again and turned to run. There had to be something around she could use as a weapon that wouldn't do any permanent damage. She heard Sandruu yell something, then she was tumbling across the ground and praying her ribs hadn't been broken. She rolled out of the way before Technus could stomp on her head and decided that she had no other choice. She summoned her weapons and fired.

The human cried out in agony, but the machine couldn't feel pain. If it had been Sandruu in control, the blast might have worked. Since it was Technus, the girl quickly found herself in a wrestling match. It was almost like the time she had wound up fist fighting with Skulker, something she had pledged would never happen again. At least, the Ghost Zone's Greatest Hunter was made out of normal metal. Sandruu's limbs were some kind of futuristic alloy that was a lot harder when it hit her in the stomach. Or maybe it was just that his hands were smaller and able to hurt a more focused area. Or maybe it was both.

Whatever it was, trying to fight back did no good since all she could do was damage his human side. The ghost in control of his machine side remained unfazed. At least, without control of the vocal chords, he couldn't rant on and on about himself.

Valerie finally managed to squirm free, aching in a dozen places and grateful all over again for her protective armor. She wasn't sure how much more of a beating it could take; even her fist fights with Skulker never usually lasted this long. Still, it would have to do unless someone randomly showed up to help, like Electra had...

Sandruu had called her, hadn't he? "I can't believe I'm doing this..." she muttered breathlessly. "Kat! Get out here!"

Said ghost girl appeared looking somewhat irritated. "Oh, now wh-Hey!"

The ghost hunter twirled her stolen weapon and turned back to her opponent. "You're going down, ghost!" Behind her, Kat smiled slowly and vanished again.

Technus stopped and shook his host's head. "He says, 'She's going to kill you for that later'," the cyborg translated.

"Like to see her try!" Valerie returned and swung the copper cane. It clanked against Sandruu's arm and was nearly ripped out of her hands, but she managed to hang on.

"You know that thing's made for conducting electricity, not fighting, right?"

"You got any better ideas?"

"None that he won't overhear."

Valerie blocked another kick aimed for her ribcage and dodged a punch, then swung the cane around as hard as she could. Sandruu crumpled like a rag doll. After a moment, Technus reformed hovering above him. "Ah, that had to hurt," he mentioned, on the verge of laughter. Suddenly, he stiffened; he almost seemed to be listening to something. "Ha!" he announced at last. "The Master calls me! Consider yourself lucky, human child!"

Valerie let him go in favor of running to her fallen comrade. When he failed to respond to her prompting, she fumbled for his pulse, suddenly certain she'd killed him.

"Is he still breathing?"

"What do you care, anyway, ghost?" the girl demanded quietly without turning.

Electra kneeled down on the cyborg's other side. "I think the question, my dear, is what do you care? After all, he is Phantom's son if Clockwork is to be believed."

Sandruu moaned and turned his head slightly, then cracked open his single eye before closing it again. "Ow..."

"Are you okay?" Valerie asked, truly concerned.

He sighed and turned his head the other way. "...you didn't...have to hit me that hard..."

"Wh...but..." the girl answered, hunting about for a response. "Well, maybe you should have been more specific!"

He winced at the sound and slowly sat up. "Please don't yell. My head is still ringing." Anyone else might have meant that proverbially; however, in the silence, the ghost hunter actually was aware of a faint ringing.

There was an extended silence, which Electra finally broke. "Anyway, in case you were wondering, that dragon's plotting something. I don't know exactly, but it was something about increasing his reign. Cheerio!"

A few moments later, Sandruu shook his head and instantly regretted it. "He must have decided we're not bothering about."

"Well, then let's go prove him wrong!" Valerie exclaimed, jumping to her feet.

The cyborg followed at a significantly slower pace. "Just shoot me..." he muttered. "Just shoot me in the head, and get it over with...just kill me and end the pain..."

"Suck it up!" the girl teased. She was of the opinion that he more than deserved that after hitting her as hard as he did.

Sandruu rolled his eyes. "That's easy for you to say. You don't have to listen to a bell choir playing three octaves too high in your head. When I get out of here, I'm going home to Stratford, and I'm never leaving again."

"So what's the future like?"

"You'll find out when you get there."

She scoffed and folded her arms. "Fine...Andrew."

It was several minutes before he even noticed and shot her a cockeyed glance. "Congratulations. You win a cookie."

"It wasn't that hard," she pointed out.

Sandruu shrugged. "I'm bad with names. I don't even respond to F...antom half the time. So Lucy said, 'Just stick an S on the front.'" His voice rose to a high falsetto for the quote, doubtless a poorly-done mockery of his sister's voice. "Oh, that's great, Luce. Why not a D? 'No, that's perfect! We'll call you Dandruff!'"

Valerie was doubled over with laughter and barely able to breathe. "Dandruff!" she gasped. "Oh, I am so calling you that from now on!"

"Yeah, that's what she said. White haired little git..." He grinned that lopsided grin of his and looked over at the howling ghost hunter. Maybe she wasn't so bad, after all.


	7. Chapter Six

Valerie blasted a zombie's head and turned to watch Sandruu crush another's. Unlike in Hollywood, the undead creatures went down rather easily. They moved with a grace that would have astounded most horror movie aficionados, but they boasted the same intelligence as their fictional counterparts. In fact, they might have been even stupider, if such a thing was possible. At least, in the movies the creatures had some kind of drive. In reality, they wouldn't even have bothered to attack if not for Necrowind's guidance.

The mindless humans were another matter. They shuffled around like movie zombies, intent on causing as much damage to the two living people as possible. Sandruu said that Lucy thought they were driven by jealousy, the simple human desire to own what another possesses: in this case, brains.

The ghost hunter didn't know what to think; furthermore, she was well past caring. All she wanted was to get by them and reach the cemetery and end the bone dragon's reign once and for all. Even if it meant occasionally thinking cheesy "heroic" lines by accident. She sighed. "Did we get them all?"

"I don't see anymore," the man confirmed. He took off again with an easy stride that Valerie was almost jealous of. Then she remembered how he'd gotten that tirelessness; it wasn't a fair trade, as far as she was concerned.

She shut off her ghost alarm as they drew closer to the cemetery; the concentrated presence of so much ectoplasmic energy had threatened to overload it again. People, both living and dead, crowded in through the gate while a myriad ghosts drifted among or floated above them. Necrowind sat atop the mausoleum toward the center of the graveyard, chanting in ancient Greek. With his neck stretched out and his wings splayed open, he seemed very intimidating.

"There he is," Sandruu quietly pointed out the obvious. "So what's the plan, boss?"

"I don't know..." the ghost hunter groaned, suddenly not as sure of herself as she was. "What was supposed to happen?"

"You're asking the guy with foot-in-mouth syndrome? No one told me anything." He muttered something about wishing Lucy was there.

Valerie sighed and wished her father was there. He would have known what to do. She'd fought powerful beings before; Pariah Dark sprang to mind. But then, she'd been fighting an army of skeleton ghosts, not her own friends and fellow townspeople. There had to be a way around them...

Before she could finish the thought, her traveling companion uttered an oath of surprise. She glanced over to see what was wrong and suddenly found herself hoisted into the air, her arms bound to her sides by a pair of white-gloved hands. "The Master wants a word with you," Phantom sneered, apparently pleased with himself for something. She heard Sandruu struggle against Plasmius and hissed at him to stop. They were being taken right where they wanted to go.

Up close, the bone dragon was even more intimidating. Her last view of him had been somewhat diminished by the close confines of her living room. Perched above them in all his glory and in that predatory stance, he seemed every inch the god of death that he claimed to be. His eyes blazed to life again as he ceased the chant and looked down at them. Every movement was slow and deliberate, designed to instill the utmost terror in his observers. She was not about to let on that it was working.

"And so," he boomed. "Your usefulness has come to a rather terminal end. Truly, it is a pity that you seek to destroy me. I might have allowed you to amuse me further."

"Well, we're happy to be of service," Valerie replied in her most caustic tone.

"Indeed..." Necrowind seemed to purr. "Release them!"

The two comrades fell to the ground as their captors backed away to join the ranks lining the fence. The great dragon launched into the air to land behind them. The ground did not shake when he struck, despite his size, nor were any trees or headstones crushed. "Come for me, if you think you can."

Valerie and Sandruu exchanged glances; she motioned him forward, then started firing. "You're going down!" she called out her usual battle cry.

"We'll see, little human." The creature lifted a foot and stomped down on Sandruu, who rolled out of the way.

The battle did not start out in the humans' favor. Valerie's shots went straight through the ethereal bones. Sandruu, who was perfectly able to attack things that were intangible thanks to his heritage, couldn't seem to do any damage. Necrowind took the "abuse" for several minutes, laughing all the while.

Valerie jumped out of the way as a whip-like tail smashed to the ground. They were missing something, something important. She noticed Sandruu fly through the air to hit a tree. He seemed okay; he had a hard head. As she watched him stumble to his feet and charge forward again, she noticed that the sphere at Necrowind's core seemed brighter...alive, even...

"Drew!" she yelled. "Attack the core!"

He waved understanding and threw himself at a bony leg with the intent to climb it. The hunter fired a few shots that ricocheted off the creature's suddenly tangible sternum, then all her concentration was taken up trying to aim between the ribs. The dragon roared his fury as the first shot hit.

He shouted something in Greek and roared wordlessly before translating himself. "You dare to defy the Wind of the Necropolis?"

"You bet we do!" Sandruu returned. He reached the Heart and began to pummel it with his mechanical fist. Valerie grinned in satisfaction and ran around to find an angle that would be less hazardous to his health.

Necrowind screamed, a bone-chilling sound, and stomped around in a futile attempt to dislodge the cyborg. As soon as he realized that Valerie was behind him, he whirled around and lunged forward to snap. No longer the cool and in control death god, he had become an unpredictable wild beast. Valerie waited until her friend had him somewhat distracted again, then raced around to his tail to resume fire.

"Val!" Sandruu called. "I think I put a crack in it!"

She was about to yell encouragement when the dragon finally got fed up. Allowing his ribs to become intangible, he reached through and swiped at the pest that had hurt him. The cyborg vanished with a cry of pain and something that glittered like metal in the light flew through the air to land at Valerie's feet.

"No!" she yelled. "Sandruu!" Later, she would be surprised at the grief she felt. Right then, all she could think of was avenging him. She rolled out of the way as a massive claw descended on her and concentrated all her fire on the tiny line of green light that oozed from within the Heart. Before long, the line became a spider's web; the web became a series of fissures.

Necrowind seemed to recognize his own impending demise. "I will return, human!" he shouted. "I will have my revenge for this!" He made one last ditch attempt to crush the black and red ant beneath his heel, and the Heart shattered.

Valerie collapsed to the ground with her hands over her ears, although it didn't do much good with her helmet in the way. The screech was overwhelming, as was the light. When she could see again, she noticed the last few wisps of energy return to their owners. The humans milled around in confusion; the ghosts unanimously decided to vanish for the moment. She looked down to see some kind of medallion with the letters "CW" inscribed on it. There was a loop for a chain, but it had apparently been removed. She picked it up, wondering vaguely if it had something to do with Sandruu's disappearance.

Someone cleared his throat, and the young hunter spun around to see the child ghost her friend had been talking to when they first met. "I believe you have something of mine," he said in a voice that was far too deep for such a young-looking spirit.

Valerie glanced down at the medallion, then drew back. "What do you want with it, ghost?" she demanded.

He smiled kindly and shifted to the form of an old man. "It's mine," he repeated. "I am Clockwork."

She looked down again; while she was inclined to believe him, she was loathe to give it up. It was all she had left of her second real friend. "What happened to him?"

"That, I'm afraid I can't tell you. But don't worry; you'll find out in time."

So he'd only gone back to his own time? But he'd been worried that he'd canceled out his existence by telling her so much. "Can't you at least tell me if he'll...you know, be born?"

Clockwork shook his head, somewhat regretfully, it seemed. "I am sorry, Ms. Grey, but I must ask you to be patient. I can you that he would have been born in eight years time. You must wait and find out for yourself if he will be now."

Suddenly, she wished she'd kept her mouth shut and not asked so many questions. She hesitantly relinquished the medallion without actually looking at the ghost. When she finally did look up, he was gone.


	8. Epilogue

Skulker stood next to Plasmius as the remains of the Heart were sealed away with Pariah Dark, never to be found again.

Or so they hoped.

Vlad glanced at the armored ghost out of the corner of his eyes; he was still waiting for an "I told you so," and was beyond grateful that it hadn't come yet. The fact was, a number of ghosts had informed him that it would be a bad idea. Now he knew why. Apparently, that was not the first time the bone dragon had escaped. There were rumors of the dead walking the streets in the eighteen hundreds that he may have been responsible for.

"Well," Vlad said, turning. "Now that that's finished, I have some doctors to astound with my amazing recovery.

Skulker smirked. "So they thought you had a nervous breakdown?"

Vlad rolled his eyes. "As long as it keeps them from guessing the truth, I could care less." He started to fly away, then turned back as a thought crossed his mind. "Return to my lab later this evening. I may have something I need you to acquire."

He had the intelligence to wait until his employer was out of sight before he sighed and rolled his eyes. He could just imagine what other stupid myths the half ghost had found in that book. Maybe next time, he'd be inclined to listen when they said it was a bad idea.

* * *

He sighed and stared at his listless human half. Several people were still recovering from an extended time without food or liquids, but he was the only one actually on an IV. "About how much longer, do you think?" 

"Give it a day," Kat answered again. "Actually, I'd wait a few days if I were you, just to be sure you'll be able to fight after you remerge, but whatever. I know how antsy you're getting." She seemed unusually peevish for some reason.

The ghost boy had a suspicion. Like her father, Kat professed to not care about emotion. Jazz had expressed the belief that she was in denial, and Danny thought that his ability to eventually return to his body might be bothering his bodiless friend. While the astral girl claimed that she was happier without her body, surely her mood proved that she was not.

"Listen, Kat," he began hesitantly. "You don't have to stay if you don't want."

The gremlin shrugged. "I don't mind. Someone's got to keep you out of trouble with all these ghosts loose."

Danny scratched the back of his neck and wondered how he should phrase himself. "Well, it's just...I mean..."

"Spit it out, or still your tongue."

The boy narrowed his eyes. "You know, just because I get to go back to my body doesn't mean you have to be mad at me!"

Kat gave him the most incredulous look he'd ever seen on her face. "Phantom, dear? I'm not mad at you." She manifested her copper cane, which had been bent almost to the breaking point from its contact with Sandruu's half-metal skull. "I'm pissed because your girlfriend broke my cane."

Danny stared at her for a minute before finally deciding to exclaim, "She's not my girlfriend!"

"But not for lack of trying." She chuckled at his expression and, figuring that discretion was better part of valor, vanished.

* * *

Valerie lay on her bed, a simple card in her hand. She turned it over and over while she considered everything. Her father didn't remember much about what happened; no one did, really. She wasn't about to enlighten him, either. She was in enough trouble for simply being involved, although her punishment had been suspended on the grounds that she saved Amity Park. 

She regarded the note with a critical eye, trying to decide what it meant. Most of her wanted to believe it was a veiled threat, but a tiny part encouraged her to take it at face value. She'd read it so many times that she practically had it memorized.

"Dear Valerie," it said. "I really wanted this to be more personal, but I'd rather not have to yell it as I flee for my life.

"I'm really, really sorry for everything I may have done while under Necrowind's control. Kat told me I may have hurt you, and I'm sorry for that. I don't actually remember much about what happened, but I would never purposefully try to hurt you. I know you don't believe that, but it's true. D. Phantom"

She had found it lying on her pillow the day after the attack. Clearly, it was intended to remind her that he knew her identity and where she lived. And yet...part of her didn't want to believe that. After all, if he could grow up to raise a decent kid like Andy Phantom, maybe he wasn't so bad.

She set the note on her dresser and stared up at her ceiling. It would definitely take some thought.

* * *

A/N: Thank you all for reading my story. You know I love you for it. And thank you, Random, for "Andy Phantom." And just to clear everything up, no. Sandruu will not be returning, and no. I'm not going to tell anyone if he'll even exist or not. 

On an interesting little side note, there was an event in the eighteen hundreds where dead were reported to walk to the streets. It happened in London and was chalked up to something in the water that caused a mass hallucination. Personally, I like my explanation better, but that's just me.

Next up: Guys and Dolls, which may yet acquire a different title, but I doubt it.


End file.
